A blur of hockey players criss-crosses the ice, hockey pucks thunk off the end boards, coaches shout and whistles echo through the Franklin Veterans Memorial rink but this — this barely orchestrated chaos — somehow seems calming to King Philip Walpole Youth Hockey Association President Terry Sullivan.

A blur of hockey players criss-crosses the ice, hockey pucks thunk off the end boards, coaches shout and whistles echo through the Franklin Veterans Memorial rink but this — this barely orchestrated chaos — somehow seems calming to King Philip Walpole Youth Hockey Association President Terry Sullivan.

On the ice, the flurry of preparation is real, given the King Philip Walpole Midget 1 team’s first practice is being held just five days before its first game of the season.

The relative bedlam Sullivan helped control within the rink seemed outright placid in the face of the comparatively seismic events that occurred over the previous few months, including three significant moves that amount to colossal change in local youth hockey.

King Philip Walpole, long a stalwart member of the Northstar League based in Westborough, joined the South Shore Conference for 2012-13.

For the first time in the program’s history, KPW will field two girls’ teams.
KPW’s instructional program, which has helped introduce youth players to the game for nearly 20 years, is calling a new rink home.

Given the backdrop of what’s happened over the past several months, rushing a team to get ready for its opening game is downright pleasant, particularly given the move to one of Massachusetts’ most well-respected youth hockey conferences.

“All of the feedback we’ve gotten about the change to the South Shore Conference has been tremendous,” Sullivan said. “A number of families who had drifted away the last couple years in part because of scheduling issues with the previous league have actually come back to the program, and the consistency of the schedule, the variety of opponents and other factors have generated a lot of interest in the program. The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive.”

King Philip Walpole Youth Hockey is a non-profit community hockey organization for boys and girls from Norfolk, Plainville, Walpole and Wrentham. With players ranging in age from pre-kindergarten through high school, KPW offers a range of teams at each age level to allow all players the opportunity to play at an appropriate skill level, from instructional programs through its highly competitive “A” teams.

The move to the South Shore Conference, which boasts seven girls’ divisions, also helped KPW forge ahead with plans to start its own girls program to accommodate the increasing interest in girls hockey. KPW was awarded a Massachusetts Hockey Eddie Cheever Grow Hockey Development Program grant to help fund the development of its first girls in-house hockey program, which will complement the program’s first competitive girls teams.

Just five years ago, 7,780 female players were registered with USA Hockey in Massachusetts, but in 2011-12 that number had ballooned to 9,564, an increase of 23 percent. Nationally, the number of female players grew from 57,549 in 2006-07 to 66,692 last season.

“We’ve never had a separate girls program, but there’s been a gathering amount of interest in girls’ hockey in Massachusetts, New England and nationally,” Sullivan said. “There certainly have been a number of programs that have come about the last few years that cater to girls’ programs, and we thought it was a logical step, since we have both girls and boys playing in the King Philip Walpole program, to create a girls program of our own to play in the South Shore Conference.”

KPW is one of Massachusetts’ largest community hockey programs, with more than 400 players, and will send 20 competitive teams to the ice, in addition to an introductory cross-ice Mite program for players younger than 8; a six-month instructional hockey program; and, for the first time, a girls instructional in-house program.

The KPW instructional program has introduced new youth players to hockey for nearly 20 years, following the American Development Model created by USA Hockey. Players learn from USA Hockey-certified volunteer coaches who help new players build confidence and develop fundamentals through a focus on small-area games, skating skills and, essentially, fun, while avoiding the high-pressure environment that often leads to player burnout.

Before developing the American Development Model, USA Hockey research found 60 percent of players dropped out of hockey before the Pee Wee level and 20 percent drop out after playing one season, but KPW’s support of the ADM has helped maintain the program’s stability.

USA Hockey’s espoused philosophy for developing and retaining players is a simple one: “The more they play it, the better chance that they’ll love it. And when you combine a passion for the game with increased puck time, kids will start to excel at it. Play, love, excel. That’s the ADM.”

KPW’s growth is measured in more tangible means this season, as well: The program’s teams will consider the Foxboro Sports Center their home rink, but also will practice at rinks in Norfolk, Franklin, Dedham, Taunton, Brockton, Bridgewater and Canton. Most notably, because of a lack of available ice time at the Iorio Arena in Walpole, the instructional program will move to the Foxboro Sports Center this season.

“We’ve encountered a few challenges recently,” Sullivan said. “We’ve shifted our instructional program to the Foxboro Sports Center and we’ve been able to make certain arrangements with other rinks we haven’t dealt with before in order to accommodate an availability issue that came up late over the summer from one local rink we no longer have an opportunity to purchase ice from. The program has been able to come up with very viable alternatives that in the end will end up costing the program less money than what we’ve paid in the past for the amount of ice time required.”

KPW teams have won three state championships over the last five seasons — by the 2007 Squirt 3 and 2008 Bantam 3 and Squirt 1 teams — and in 2011-12 the program’s final season in the Northstar League was one of its most successful: the Mite 1, Squirt 1, Squirt 2, Pee Wee 1, Pee Wee 3 and Bantam 2 teams all captured their respective division championships, while the Squirt 4 and Bantam 1 teams finished second.

Franklin Youth Hockey, KPW’s neighbor and long-time rival, also left the Northstar League to join the South Shore Conference for 2012-13, further enhancing the South Shore Conference’s long-established reputation for being one of Massachusetts’ most competitive youth hockey leagues.

Sullivan, echoing the sentiment heard from many of the program’s families, is looking forward to the coming season.

“We’re excited by the opportunity that the move to the South Shore Conference represents,” Sullivan said. “A lot of programs we’ve seen in district playdowns, we’ll now have the opportunity to compete against them directly now in league play. It’ll help generate some new excitement in the King Philip Walpole program and set the program in a good direction for the future.”

The King Philip Walpole Youth Hockey Association is accepting registrations for its instructional program and its girls in-house program, which both begin Sept. 15. Registration costs $350 before Oct. 1, and $450 afterward.

Visit the KPW Web site at www.kpwhockey.org for more information and to register.